“When I first discovered you and your friends coming down the road, on your way to the village to visit Jerry, I nearly fell off my horse with fright. I knew it looked suspicious for me to sneak off into the bushes, but I could not help it—I could not face you.”
“You showed your guilt as plainly as daylight,” I observed. “There was not one among our fellows who was not willing to declare that you knew more about that money than any one else.”
“I can not begin to tell you what a miserable night I passed,” continued Tom. "My uncle repeatedly declared in my hearing that he knew Jerry to be the guilty one, but that did not allay my fears in the least. The real facts of the case might leak out somewhere before morning—there were a thousand ways in which they might become known—and then what would he think of me? Above all, what would he _do_?
"I never once closed my eyes in sleep, and early the next morning I set out for the swamp, to visit my evil genius. He and his boys were the only friends I had now, and, somehow, I felt easier in their company than any where else. I believed that I must keep close to them, to prevent them from telling some one of my secrets.
"I was glad to learn that Luke Redman intended to start for Louisiana immediately, and was sorry he had not gone hours before. I was angry, too, when I found that he was going alone, and urged him to take his whole family and clear out, bag and baggage, and never return; but he said it would look suspicious if they all went together, and I was obliged to submit to the arrangements he had made.
"It was Luke Redman’s intention to go down the bayou to the river in his skiff, and the Swamp Dragoons and I were so anxious to see him off that we accompanied him on horseback.
"He would have succeeded in making his escape, had it not been for that accident at Dead Man’s Elbow. Although he had two oars, and was a good boatman, he allowed himself to be brought within the influence of the current that ran toward the cavern. His skiff was overturned, and the only thing that saved him from destruction was the tree that stood on the edge of the falls.
"When your brother came down, I concealed myself in the bushes, and kept out of his sight. I saw all that happened there that afternoon, and when Mark swam over the falls, I jumped on my horse with the others, and did my best to overtake him; but he gave us the slip somehow, and we went back and worked for six long hours to get Luke Redman out of that tree, and to obtain possession of the valise.